Cleveland Bridge gives notice to its 250 Wembley workers

Cleveland Bridge is to make 250 of its staff working on the £757m Wembley project redundant, it has been confirmed today (Friday).

The redundancies occurred after the Wembley arch manufacturer failed to negotiate a transfer of staff to Hollandia.

The Dutch firm was taken on to complete the remaining steelwork on the site on Tuesday after Multiplex gave Cleveland Bridge 28 days to leave the project.

Lengthy talks took place between Multiplex, Cleveland Bridge and Hollandia, but still the parties were unable to reach agreement on the transfer of Wembley site staff and workforce to Hollandia.

A Cleveland Bridge statement confirmed: "We had no alternative but to give notice of redundancy to our entire Wembley staff. This will affect close to 200 blue-collar employees and nearly 50 staff employees who will leave by the end of this month."

The statement continued: "We used our best endeavours to ensure that the Cleveland Bridge employees are retained on the site, having first offered to second the staff to Hollandia. 

"This offer having been turned down, we have worked with the trades unions, Amicus and GMB, to investigate the possibility of reaching an agreement with Hollandia on the transfer of our staff and workforce to them." 

Depite the setback, Multiplex insist that the project will be completed in time for the 2006 FA Cup Final.